Childhood Memories About a Box

“I miss good old days, before digital downloads, DRM and the Kardashians, where PC games came in thick, physical, rectangular boxes that were roughly the size of a 13” MacBook Pro screen.

I remember my dad buying me a copy if Age of Empires 2 at my local Video Games heaven store (a prehistoric video games store). I was a massive fan of the first age of Empires game, history and also Real time strategy games.

While I was extremely excited to install Age of Empires on my computer, I was also wowed by what was in the box.

The box just didn’t just include a copy of the game and a licensing agreement; it had a physical manual and an additional fold out quick guide. By the way, this wasn’t a pre-order bonus or special edition.

While I learnt a lot about history playing Age of Empires 2, I learnt a lot more through reading the textbook. The game was the history teacher, while the manual was the textbook. It wasn’t a small booklet you’d find in a PS2 game; it was a full sized, bound book.